Friday, February 12, 2010

E-Portfolios: Report Cards without Borders!

I found myself very tied to how we can develop capacity for self-assessment, and promoting learning goals and shared understanding of criteria by which they are assessed. I know why, too. I found that in my time in school, I was clueless. I never knew if I was doing the job correctly or not. My Dad was the king of "keep up with it yourself." He would color-code, everything, and tell me to ask for this and record that. Dad always said, "If they hand back everything graded, then you can always know your average."

My only problem was that I was a mess! So, I am excited to put control of assessment in the students' hand. The same thing is true of my portfolio! I think that the portfolio is great! I have several ideas how I can market myself with it, and later I can use the site to teach students!

I told my wife that I am a "glass-house" kinda guy; I like everything as simple and transparent as I kind get them. Assessment for Learning and E-Portfolios both add transparency to learning and teaching. Also, it challenges us to develop critical information and social network literacies that our students will know or need us to teach them, before they leave grade school.

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